Bitcoin Gold’s breach reflects badly on the entire cryptocurrency market

While the sudden surge in the price of Bitcoin might have stolen the media spotlight over the past few days, a less popular spinoff from the core Bitcoin blockchain, known as Bitcoin Gold, has been on the receiving end of tons of criticism from both the press and crypto community  – and not without a reason.

Shortly after a data correction on November 25 made Bitcoin Gold the fifth biggest cryptocurrency by market share on Coin Market Cap , the company released a critical warning on its blog, revealing that its team discovered “two suspicious files of unknown origin” in its Windows Wallet installer.

“Please be aware that for approximately [four and a half] days, a link on our Download page and the file downloads on our Github release page have been serving two suspicious files of unknown origin,” the warning read. “[A]ll users should presume these files were created with malicious intent.”

“ Any user who verified the SHA-256 checksum of the download against the checksum listed on our Download pages is already aware the file is not authentic and should not have used the file,” it continues. “The file does not trigger antivirus / anti-malware software, but do not presume the file is safe.”

Although the company has since updated its website and Github accounts with the correct installer, all users who downloaded the installer (between November 21, 2017, 09:39 UTC, and November 25, 2017, 22:30 UTC) are advised to get the new version and thoroughly examine their systems for malware and viruses.

“[A]ny cryptocurrencies with wallets accessible on that machine should be moved to new wallet addresses immediately,” the post warned.

What makes this blunder particularly embarrassing is that the news came only days after Bitcoin Gold had been involved in another wallet hack , which collectively cost users a whopping $3.3 million in stolen funds.

According to reports, the fraudulent ‘mybtgwallet’ app gained access to these funds by surreptitiously recording users’ private keys.

Still, despite all of this negative coverage, Bitcoin Gold has somehow managed not to lose much value; its price has decreased by less than seven percent over the course of the week, according to Coin Market Cap.

The cryptocurrency community, however, is not taking the news lightly. Redditors have voiced their frustration that the slew of issues associated with Bitcoin Gold – and other recent hard forks from the original Bitcoin blockchain – could potentially have an unfavorable impact on the entire cryptocurrency market.

For context, Bitcoin Gold is one of the three wayward forks to spur out of the core Bitcoin blockchain in the past few months – the other two are the Bitcoin Cash and the newly-born Bitcoin Diamond. The fork was designed to change Bitcoin’s consensus algorithm in order to allow users to mine the currency with graphic processing units (GPU) rather than ASICs .

It also promised to allow miners to choose their own size of blocks, with a default of 1MB (the same block size as the core blockchain).

But unlike Bitcoin Cash, which gradually managed to shake off some of the bad rep it received upon launch back in August, the approach of the team behind Gold comes across as much less involved with the project and – more disturbingly – its community.

While, contrary to Bitcoin Diamond whose team remains anonymous , Bitcoin Gold has revealed some of the names behind the initiative, the company has struggled to keep an appropriate level of transparency with the users.

The Gold team includes founder Jack Liao – who also runs Hong Kong-based mining firm Lightning ASIC – as well as several other strategists, consultants, and UX/UI designers, who were similarly listed by their names on the dedicated team page .

But here is the concerning part: nobody knows who the lead developer behind the project is. We know little about this mysterious individual, who goes by the equally enigmatic alias h4x3rotab, other than the fact that he’s based out of China – where Liao resides too.

Although Bitcoin Gold claimed its Github repository contained the full code while the project was still in its pre-mining phase, many have cast doubt over the authenticity of this claim. Crypto enthusiasts were quick to point out that, upon reviewing the code, exchange desk Bittrex deemed it sub-par due its failure to meet its “ criteria for safety for our users.”

It further warned that Bitcoin Gold didn’t have “ fully formed consensus code, implemented replay protection, adequate code for testing and auditing, publicly known code developers.” The company has since assured its working on improving the code on a few occasions, but its public Trello page appears idle .

It is ironic to argue for more transparency when speaking about a project that was started by someone whose identity still remains an enigma, but keeping the lead developer anonymous is not a move that gives confidence to users. Especially these days, when fraudulent ICOs and cryptocurrencies are running wild.

Just over the past two months, we’ve seen at least two projects – BitPetite and Confido – disappear out of thin air, along with its users’ money.

For the sake of clarity, the goal of this piece is not at all to undermine Bitcoin Gold and the people behind it.

The argument I’m trying to make is that, similarly to Bitcoin Cash, Gold still has to prove its legitimacy to the larger cryptocurrency community – and being more transparent about what goes on behind closed curtains is a good first step.

This will put more responsibility on these individuals and hopefully keep them sharper, so they can catch these vulnerabilities before malicious agents have had a chance to exploit them.

The truth is that – whether you like it or not – Bitcoin Gold currently sits on Coin Market Cap as the fifth biggest cryptocurrency by market share. And at a time when all eyes are on the cryptocurrency market, every time Bitcoin Gold suffers, the entire market suffers too.

The Cryptos is a witty comic strip that pokes fun at cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency and blockchain are finally making waves in mainstream media – a trend that has sent thousands of recreational enthusiasts hastily flocking to talk crypto on various online discussion boards like BitcoinTalk, Steemit, Telegram and Twitter. But perhaps most popular among these is Reddit.

The self-proclaimed ‘front page of the internet’ has gradually established itself as one of the go-to places for heated discussions on cryptocurrency, blockchain, and the culture around these still-nascent technologies. Among other things, crypto-nerds frequent Reddit to share investment advice, drop trading tips, vent about silly decisions – and quite often, post dank memes .

But there is one particular Redditor who makes memes so dope, they are changing the very fabric of the cryptocurrency meme economy. Meet The Cryptos : the author behind the eponymous comic series that mocks your favorite cryptocurrencies by turning them into poorly-drawn comic characters.

Think of it as Polandball , but for crypto.

Since first launching in September last year, The Cryptos has poked fun at Bitcoin’s slow and pricey transaction fees, Ethereum’s numerous hard forks , Ripple’s sudden price increase and subsquent drop , as well as BitConnect ‘s shady business model .

After months of entertaining the Reddit cryptocurrency community, The Cryptos recently launched its own subreddit where people can find the latest editions of the quirky web comic series. But before venturing into drawing comics, The Cryptos was merely another Redditor with a vague interest in crypto.

“ I personally entered the cryptocurrency space in March 2017, after stumbling across ethereum on Reddit while bored and working as a waiter at a restaurant,” the anonymous author told TNW over email. “I launched [ The Cryptos ] on September 6 [last year].”

Anxiously browsing through CoinMarketCap, one day the author had a brief moment of contemplation. “ There are more than 1,000 [cryptocurrencies],” the comic-maker thought, “[a]nd each one is unique.”

“ As you look through them, it can be reminiscent of going through a Pokedex or staring at the back of a Mr. Men book,” he continued. ” You want to know about them all, but there are just so many.”

This is how the idea for The Cryptos was born.

Shortly after The Cryptos launched, one of the comic strips went viral on Reddit in December, attracting more than 115,000 views. “ This made me realise the true potential of my project and it also kicked our dev team (me) into gear,” the author said.

A month later, The Cryptos now has its own subreddit and – in die-hard crypto-fashion – its own roadmap, outlining the future of the project.

Among other things, the roadmap (which appears to be semi-serious at best) envisions The Cryptos launching its first animated cartoon, getting listed on a “major” exchange desk, “forking off” into a YouTube channel, building a blockchain-based game, and eventually ceasing to exist in September later this year – perhaps due to increasing financial struggles, or so the roadmap suggests.

“ Every milestone featured has been selected so that is it achievable in the time given,” The Cryptos tells me. “Some of the goals will be challenging and take a lot of effort, but I have complete faith in the Roadmap.”

“ I am also of course also planning a few surprises along the way,” the author teased.

For now though, the mysterious force behind the web comic wants to focus on the short-term goals.

“ I’m very lucky to be in a position right now to be able to devote a lot of time to this project,” the author said. “A side perk of creating my comic is I am continually learning about new and exciting cryptocurrencies – this in itself is a value proposition, as it gives me an extra incentive to conduct research.”

While The Cryptos prefers to refrain from spoiling what is to come in future comics, he was kind enough to offer us a hint. “ At the moment, censorship is emerging as a huge issue across certain cryptocurrency subreddits,” he continued. “I absolutely want to address that, as I’ve personally been affected by it after having my comics deleted by moderators.”

“ Other topics I plan to explore more include: privacy, rebrands, the power imbalance associated with pre-mines and also the impact of cryptocurrency on the environment.”

Curious to take a peek at the upcoming comic strips? Follow The Cryptos ‘ most recent work on Reddit and Twitter .

Meanwhile, here are some of my personal favorites from The Cryptos :

Here is the leaked white paper for the massive Telegram ICO

It seems everyone wants in on the cryptocurrency craze – and it looks messaging giant Telegram is gearing up to launch its own initial coin offering (ICO).

Following a report from TechCrunch, Cryptovest has shared a leaked copy of the white paper primer detailing Telegram’s blockchain-powered ambitions. According to the document, the Telegram Open Network (TON) will be a “third generation” blockchain with more efficient transaction and scaling capabilities than current solutions like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

TNW has been able to confirm the authenticity of the white paper leaked by Cryptovest with an independent source.

Here is the leaked document as obtained from Cryptovest and corroborated by TNW:

As outlined in the document, Telegram is aiming to raise as much as $500 million dollars in a pre-sale ICO. The fundraising could begin as early as March this year.

Among other things, the Telegram Open Network cryptocurrency will be used to facilitate payments and microtransactions between its 180 million users.

Meanwhile, Telegram – founded by Russian entrepreneur and VK founder Pavel Durov – is hardly the only messaging platform working on its own cryptocurrency. Rival Kik has similarly announced its own blockchain-powered token, KIN .

Stay tuned for the launch of our new channel, Hard Fork, where we will be taking a deep dive into everything cryptocurrency and blockchain.